Search Engine Optimisation Scotland – 3 Quick Tips!
3 Quick Tips You Can Use Today!
I’ve talked to many business owners in my role as head of SEO for iMS and I’ve found that the mere mention of search engine optimisation is enough to send shivers down the spine of even the most successful business person!
Luckily, it s not as hard as it sounds and you can learn how to carry out effective search engine optimisation for your business by taking time to study what it entails and learning the techniques involved.
However, the fact remains SEO is not an overnight task one can start today and start seeing results tomorrow. Depending on the keywords you wish to rank highly for, it can take up to six months to see any sort of measurable results. It takes a certain level of commitment to keep plugging away and working for higher rankings.
What keeps us motivated to carry on is the end result of a website that ranks highly for solid keywords; higher search rankings, more exposure than your competitors and a steady stream of new customers finding your business for years to come.
I want to highlight 3 quick tips you can implement today to give your website a boost in the search rankings;
Tip #1 “On Page SEO”
On Page SEO entails setting your website up for the keywords you wish to rank highly for. Let’s use an example and imagine you are an estate agent in Glasgow and you want to rank highly for three search terms; Flats for sale in Glasgow, Houses for sale in Glasgow and Rentals in Glasgow.
Where most business owners fail is they try to rank for each of these keywords on their homepage.
What they should be doing is setting up individual pages which are optimised for each of these keywords. So, take the first keyword “Flats for sale in Glasgow”, create a new web page and call it “www.yoursite.com/flatsforsaleinglasgow.html.”
Having the keyword in your URL is the first step to solid on page Search Engine Optimisation and will give your a much better chance of ranking highly for it.
What other on page factors should you consider optimising?
Webpage Title; Ensure it contains the keyword.
H1, H2, H3 tags; Ensure they contain the keyword.
Webpage Content: Try to aim for 500-1000 words per page.
Keyword Density; Aim to include the keyword at around 4% in the content of the page. (Don’t overdo this)
Images; Ensure all images have “Alt text” and make it contain the keyword.
Outgoing Links: Link to relevant, authority websites using the keyword as anchor text.
Flats For Sale Glasgow
Tip #2 “Simple Link Building”
So now you know how to optimise your website “On Page” it’s time to learn some simple “Off Page” Search Engine Optimisation, namely LINK BUILDING.
Firstly, let me say that on Page SEO actually matters very little in terms of search engine rankings so don’t spend days on it.
Want proof? Just type the keyword “click here” into Google and look at the site ranking first. It’s Adobeeven though their website does not contain one mention of “click here” anywhere!
So what’s the deal? Simply, Adobe ranks number 1 for “click here” because thousands upon thousands of other sites link to the Adobe website using links with the anchor text “Click Here.”
What does this mean? It means that the most important factor in getting your website ranked highly is the number of high quality links you have pointing to your website containing the keywords you want to rank highly for.(These links are known as “backlinks” since they effectively link back to your website.)
For example, if you wish to rank for the keyword “Flats For Sale Glasgow” so when we gain backlinks to the website we ensure they look like this;
So before you begin link building know which keywords you want to rank highly for and ensure the anchor text of your backlinks contain those keywords.
Your backlinks count as “votes” for your website in the eyes of search engines.
The more backlinks containing your chosen keywords you have from high quality, relevant websites the higher you will rank for those keywords. If lots of websites are competing for the keywords you are going for you’ll need to work extra hard at this part! On the other hand, if you have little competition it’s easy work!
Simple!
(I’m not going to delve into how to get backlinks in this post as it’s a whole post on it’s own. I’ll write up a detailed description of how I gain high quality backlinks at another time you can find great information on this topic with a simple Google search.)
Tip #3 “Social Media Integration”
So, now you’re all set with on and off page SEO I want to quickly cover Social Media integration in terms of SEO. It’s not a massive help in terms of rankings but it DOES help so it’s worth mentioning it. Social Media marketing is much better used to gain exposure for your business rather than optimise it for the search engines.
Creating Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts for your business and including your website link can give you a small boost in search engine rankings.
Think of it this way everyone uses these websites so it’s only natural for the search engines to find links to your websites on Facebook and Twitter etc.
In fact, it’s not natural for your links not to be there!
I advise you to quickly set accounts up on social media sites and link back to your website from them.
Summary Key Points
To Consider!
Writing this I’ve tried to keep the terminology as simple as possible so a beginner can understand it. The key points you must consider when looking to get your website ranking highly for the keywords you desire are;
Solid On Page SEO (10%)
Effictive Off Page SEO/Link Building (88%)
Social Media Integration (2%)
The most important thing to do before you start is have a full understanding of the processes involved and then commit the time and resources to achieving the results you seek.
Remember ranking highly can take time but the benefits are worth the wait!
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